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SDA promotes dental hygiene among youth
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Posted on Oct 06 2004
The Seventh Day Adventist Dental Clinic continues to promote dental hygiene, with presentations on how to maintain healthy teeth and gums at various schools.
Lori DeMaine, who conducts the presentations, visited Garapan Elementary School yesterday, explaining that providing dental and oral education to the public plays an important role in promoting health within the community.
“We feel that getting information out to the community, particularly on dental and oral health education, is very important, especially with children,” she said. “If the child has toothache, he or she cannot concentrate in school.”
About 75 percent of children in America between 4 and 12 years old have at least one cavity.
DeMaine said prevention—through the education of children on dental hygiene and health—is the best way to prevent cavities and gum disease.
“Prevention is the number one key, so by coming to the schools and talking to them about how to brush their teeth, why they need to brush their teeth, what plaque is, what causes cavities…then the children can start [at a younger age] brushing their teeth and not having as many cavities,” she said.
Further, DeMaine said that, with the islands’ high rate of diabetes, the importance of promoting dental hygiene is even more necessary.
“For people who suffer from diabetes, their gums don’t heal as fast. When they’re not taking care of their teeth by removing the plaque on a daily basis, their mouth becomes like an open sore or an open wound that does not heal. So it’s very important for people to make that connection—that a healthy gum means a healthy person.
She said studies have also tied cardiovascular disease to gum disease caused by plaque.
“The theory is that the blood supply—the same one that goes to your gums—also goes to your kidneys lungs, and heart, and can carry bacteria from your gums to your heart and everywhere else to cause an infection,” she said.
DeMaine visits schools every other Wednesday. She said during visits, SDA provides free toothbrushes, stickers, and free dental exams for students. The school presentations started in Sept. 2002.
